1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to reproducing apparatuses, and more particularly to an apparatus capable of reproducing moving pictures and applying special effects to the moving pictures reproduced.
2. Description of Related Art
Heretofore, some household video cameras applied special effects to moving pictures and sounds reproduced from a magnetic tape. These special effects include a fade-in effect in which the moving pictures and sounds reproduced are made gradually visible and audible, and a fade-out effect in which the moving pictures and sounds reproduced are made gradually fainter until they disappear, as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Hei 8-289200.
In such a conventional type of video camera, a magnetic tape is used as a recording medium on which moving pictures and sounds are recorded. Therefore, it is hard for the user to accurately grasp a reproduction time of the moving pictures for a given scene. In recent years, apparatuses that are capable of recording a still image signal or a moving picture signal in a memory card have been put on the market. In cases where a moving picture signal has been recorded in a memory card, it is possible for the user to accurately grasp a reproduction time of the moving picture signal.
In such systems, there is a prescribed time that is required to adequately perform the fade process. Even though the user can grasp the reproduction time, the user does not know the prescribed time required to perform the fade process. Even if the user did know the prescribed time to adequately perform the fade process, the user would have to obtain the reproduction time and then the user would have to make a decision as to whether or not the reproduction time was sufficiently long to properly perform the fade process. Since this is not practical, the user typically will perform the reproduction with the desired fade process even though it is possible that the fade process will not be adequately performed because the length of the reproduction time is not sufficient to perform the desired fade process.